Convertible railway maintenance apparatus

Abstract

A rail maintenance apparatus having a plurality of equipment elements including: a rear railway wheel assembly, a tractor, a pair of laser beam receiver assemblies, a medial railway wheel assembly, a tamping device, a pair of laser aperture assemblies, a track clamping and lifting assembly, a forward railway wheel assembly, an extensible boom, and a pair of laser beam emitter assemblies engaged by and supported by a rail cart. The equipment elements are arranged and assembled so as to run on a railroad track. The laser emitters, apertures and receivers arranged to detect non-level track sections and the clamping and lifting assembly and tamping device arranged and enabled for lifting the track sections in order to re-level the sections.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Present Disclosure[0002]This disclosure relates generally to rolling railway equipment for rail maintenance and more particularly to such an equipment capable of running on roadways as well as rails.[0003]2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98[0004]Theurer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,763 discloses a mobile track tamper comprising of a frame and a tamping head vertically moveably mounted thereon, the tamping head including a pair of vibratory ballast tamping tool implements arranged for reciprocation in the direction of track elongation and capable tamping blast under tack ties upon vertical downward movement of the tamping head and immersion of the tamping tool implements in the ballast. Each implement is a rigid unit which consists of a tamping tool holder and tamping tools mounted thereon. The tamping tool holder has an arm mounted on the tamping head for pivoting in a vertical plane passin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent describes a new apparatus and method for maintaining railways that allows for more frequent maintenance. The apparatus includes a rear railway wheel assembly, a tractor, a laser beam receiver assembly, a medial railway wheel assembly, a tamping device, a laser aperture assembly, a track clamping and lifting assembly, a forward railway wheel assembly, an extensible boom, and a laser beam emitter assembly. The apparatus is designed to run on a railroad track and can detect non-level track sections and lift them up to re-level them. The invention aims to provide advantages over previous methods and can work well on railways that see heavy traffic."

Problems solved by technology

When rail traffic is heavy it is particularly difficult to maintain railways because maintenance equipment traveling on such railways is only able to leave a main track when a siding is available.

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